Greek Mythology: Sirens and Chaos
Cover image: Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse (1891) Please note, this post will contain some spoilers for Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows. One of the narratives throughout Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows involves beings from Greek mythology. In Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked, I briefly touched on Elysia’s background as a siren and her…
Death and Mourning in Victorian America
Cover image of the White House after President Gardfield’s death. (Courtesy of Billion Graves) A major theme in my new novel, Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows, is death. The societal customs and industry that accompanied death changed dramatically in the Victorian period. Prior to this period and during the early part of it, it was…
A New Religion: Spiritualism
Cover image from the film Dr. Mabuse (1922), directed by Fritz Lang. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis Because my novel Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows takes place in 1902, I couldn’t help but include a séance scene. But séances were only a part of the much larger Spiritualism movement that started in the mid 19th century and lasted…
Carnivals and Freaks: A History
Cover image of a 1960s carnival. (Courtesy of http://www.docsmidwaycookhouse.com) As with part one of Shores of Chaos, I included some customs and entertainment from the turn of the century in Darkness Follows. For one, circuses and carnivals gained popularity during this time. Many carnivals can trace their roots to the World’s Columbian Exposition held in…
A Birthday Treat
So I recently just celebrated my birthday and treated myself with a brand new 18th century costume. I’ve been waiting a long time to make a dress with purple/pink floral material and finally found the perfect fabric. The dress I decided to make is a Robe à la Française which was a popular style from…
A Good Ole Time: Seaside Amusements and Boardwalks
I’ll admit when writing Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked, I was driven by nostalgia for my love of all things related to the seashore. Two of those things are the boardwalk and seaside amusement parks. I personally have always loved walking up and down the boardwalks, looking for cool things to buy or fun games to…
Come One, Come All to the Story of American Vaudeville!
Above image: Poster from the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles , 1894 A fun thing I included in one of the chapters of my novel Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked is a turn of the century vaudeville show. American Vaudeville was an entertainment form in the United States from the 1880s to the 1930s. Vaudeville shows consisted of…
The Evolution of the American Insane Asylum
Above image: Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, NJ, demolished 2015 Something I decided to add to the final draft of Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked was the 19th century insane asylum. For most of us when we think of the typical Victorian or Gilded Age insane asylum, we think of grim, filthy places where…
Postpartum Depression in the 19th Century
One of my goals with my writing is to help those suffering from mental illness. In Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked I tackled postpartum depression (PPD). In my first draft of this story, I unfortunately fell into the trap of making a villain out of my character, Frances Ashman, who is suffering from this illness. For…
A Brief History of Lighthouses
Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked came about from my love of lighthouses and all things related to the seashore. I went to my first lighthouse when I was about eleven and have been enchanted by their architectural design and their purpose for existence ever since. I chose to set my story in the 1890s as this…
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About Me
Hi, I’m Genavieve. I am an aspiring author with a vivid imagination and a passion for seeing my ideas become reality. One of the genres I will be writing in is historical fiction as I am an avid lover of history. Another genre I will be writing in is horror fiction as I am fascinated by the supernatural and the macabre.
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Genavieve Blackwood's Author Website 